This invention relates to apparatus and methods of directing users to health care information.
Patients, after being diagnosed with ailments, often desire information about the diagnosed ailments. Health care providers convey some information about the ailments to their patients. However, for various reasons the health care providers do not convey and/or the patients do not understand or remember all information that the patients should know. For example, time constraints with patient appointments limit the time health care providers have with their patients to explain anything but the most important aspects concerning the ailments. Also, patients often fail to think of questions or concerns about their ailments until after the conclusion of their appointments with the health care providers. Even if a health care provider provides detailed information about the ailment, a patient may not remember important information or may not understand the health care provider""s nomenclature.
A tremendous amount of information about diseases and other ailments is available via the Internet. A principal problem with patients finding helpful medical information on the Internet is that patients do not have sufficient background to allow them to find information which is appropriate for their disease or group of symptoms. Furthermore, even if patients can find information specific to their diseases or conditions, they usually do not have sufficient training or insight to allow them to find where they are within the courses of their diseases or conditions. All diseases and conditions are associated with a course which can run from days (acute conditions) to decades (chronic conditions). Patients currently must rely on Internet search engines, which funnel information based upon key words. These key words are typically much too generic and result in a broad listing too voluminous to pinpoint a patient""s particular ailment. For example breast cancer has at least seven histologic variants which can be diagnosed by seven distinctly different biopsy methods, and at least eight types of operations are currently performed for treating breast cancer. A key word search for xe2x80x9cbreast cancerxe2x80x9d on an Internet search engine produces a generic listing of tens of thousands of pages. Even within a specific health information web site, the search listing will simply list all pages within the site which are related to breast cancer.
Among the objects and advantages of the present invention may be noted the provision of an improved method for providing to a patient specific and relevant information about an ailment of the patient; the provision of such a method which enables a health care provider to, with minimal effort, direct a patient to information about the ailment; the provision of an improved method for providing information about an ailment to a patient via an Internet web site; the provision of such a method which employs standardized codes; the provision of such a method which employs International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes or Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes; the provision of an improved Internet navigational system for providing health care information to a user; the provision of such a system employing standardized codes, such as ICD or CPT codes, to enable a user to retrieve descriptive information about an ailment.
Generally, a method of the present invention comprises using a prescription pad to facilitate providing health care information to a patient. The prescription pad has a plurality of prescription sheets. The method comprises: performing a diagnostic procedure on a patient to identify an ailment of the patient; placing on at least one of the prescription sheets of the prescription pad an address for an Internet web site, information about the ailment being accessible via the Internet web site; and giving the one prescription sheet to the patient.
Another aspect of the present invention is a method of directing a patient to a source of health care information. The method comprises: identifying an ailment of the patient; ascertaining an ICD or CPT code associated with the ailment; instructing the patient to input the ICD or CPT code into a computer communicating with an Internet web site to obtain information about the ailment, the Internet web site and computer being configured in such a manner that the input of the ICD or CPT code into the computer results in retrieval via the Internet web site of very specific information about the ailment.
Another aspect of the present invention comprises providing health care information to an Internet user. The method comprises: storing descriptive information about a plurality of ailments in a computer database; providing a retrieval system accessible by an Internet user using the Internet, the retrieval system being adapted to retrieve the stored descriptive information for an ailment of the plurality of ailments upon the user initiating a signal corresponding to the ailment; furnishing prescription pads to health care providers, each of the prescription pads including a plurality of prescription sheets, the prescription sheets having placed thereon an address for the Internet web site.
Another aspect of the present invention for providing health care information to a user comprises: storing descriptive information about a plurality of ailments in a computer database, the descriptive information about each of the plurality of ailments being associated with at least one ICD or CPT code for said each of the plurality of ailments; providing a retrieval system accessible by an Internet user using the Internet, the retrieval system being adapted to retrieve the stored descriptive information for an ailment of the plurality of ailments upon the user initiating a signal corresponding to the ICD or CPT code for the ailment.
A further aspect of the present invention comprises an Internet navigational system for providing health care information to a user. The navigational system comprises a computer database and a retrieval system. The computer database has stored therein descriptive information about a plurality of ailments. Each ailment corresponds to an ICD or CPT code. The retrieval system is accessible by an Internet user using the Internet. The retrieval system is adapted to retrieve the stored descriptive information corresponding to one of the ailments upon the user initiating a signal corresponding to the ICD or CPT code associated with such ailment.
Another aspect of the present invention is a prescription pad for facilitating the providing of health care information to a patient. The prescription pad comprises a plurality of prescription sheets. At least one of the prescription sheets includes a surface having an address for an Internet web site placed thereon. The surface further has placed thereon an ICD or CPT code associated with an ailment. The Internet web site contains information about the ailment.
Other objects and features will be in part apparent and in part pointed out hereinafter.